I had one tumour in the back of my neck and one in my left lung. The cancer could also have spread to other parts of my body," he wrote at the time.He chronicled his fight with the disease in his final book, "Quicksand: What it means to be a human being. Stockholm (AFP) - Best-selling Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, whose detective character Kurt Wallander became a worldwide phenomenon, has died at 67 after a battle with cancer.Mankell, who first revealed he had cancer in January last year, "died in his sleep early this morning" in Sweden's second city of Gothenburg, his publishing house Leopard said on its website on Monday.Mankell's collection of dark novels about the Swedish police inspector Wallander brought the author international fame, particularly after it was made into a television series by the BBC starring Oscar-nominated actor and director Kenneth Branagh. Wallander won the best drama series Bafta in 2009 and best actor award for Kenneth the following year.
He lived with his father, a judge, and barely saw his mother until he was 15.When the family moved to a remote town in the north of Sweden, the young Mankell immersed himself in books, reading extensively about Africa, and learned that imagination could be an instrument of survival, not just of creativity. "In Mozambique, he was artistic director of the Teatro Avenida theatre group, in order to, as he told AFP in a 2011 interview, observe the world from a spot other than "our ethnocentric Europe".Asked where he believed the centre of Europe lay, Mankell replied "the small island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily" from where tens of thousands of migrants arrive on Europe's shores every year fleeing war and poverty.After he began exploring Africa in the 1970s, he used to say he had "one foot in the snow, one foot in the sand". "We're not taking lightly the idea of people being murdered," Throughout his adult life, Mankell divided his time between Sweden and Mozambique, where he ran a theatre company and devoted time to the fight against Aids.He was active in the "memory books" project, which encourages parents with HIV to record their stories, not just for their children but for future generations.Shortly after New Year 2014, the author went to see an orthopaedic surgeon in Stockholm with what he assumed was a slipped disc. Best-selling Swedish writer Henning Mankell, author of the Wallander crime novels, dies aged 67. ': Trump accuses Birx of agreeing with Pelosi's criticism of pandemic response Who CARES about the unemployed? "Henning Mankell was one of the great Swedish authors of our time, loved by readers in Sweden and all over the world," said a statement from Leopard, which Mankell co-founded in 2001.
But tests revealed a tumour in his lung, another in his neck, and evidence the cancer had spread throughout his body.
In a statement, Sir Kenneth said: "In life and in art Henning Mankell was a man of passionate commitment. "He was contemplating writing a new Wallander for the 25th anniversary of the series next year," added Israel, who saw Mankell several days before his death.His publisher in France for 25 years, Anne Freyer, who had been due to meet him at a literary festival in southern France later this week, told AFP she was "shattered" by news of his death.Mankell leaves a widow Eva Bergman, 70, the daughter of Swedish cinema great Ingmar Bergman, and his son Jon.Henning Mankell published more than 40 novels, plays and children's books, selling around 40 million copies around the world (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)Leopards, wolves vanishing from panda conservation areas: studyThis day in sports: Yankees catcher Thurman Munson killed in plane crash'Pathetic! BBC Four screened the latter version in the UK. "Mankell first revealed he had cancer in a newspaper column in January 2014, saying it was discovered when he underwent treatment for a slipped disc. "His loving family, and those privileged to know him, together with readers from all over the world, will mourn a fine writer and a fine man. Kurt Wallander first appeared in 1989's Faceless Killers, investigating a murder in which the only clue is that the perpetrators appear to have been foreigners.
In Mankell's home country, both Rolf Lassgard and Krister Henriksson played the role. "As an author he inspired, entertained and incited. I had it in black and white: it was serious. Wallander author Henning Mankell on lure of Africa Best-selling Swedish writer Henning Mankell, author of the Kurt Wallander police novels, has died at the age of 67, his publisher said on Monday. I will miss his provocative intelligence and his great personal generosity. "Writing was vital for Henning," news agency TT quoted Dan Israel, with whom he established Leopard, as saying. Best-selling Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, whose detective character Kurt Wallander became a worldwide phenomenon, has died at 67 after a battle with cancer. Sir Kenneth Branagh plays Wallander in the English-language version The writer was diagnosed with cancer in early 2014 "Mankell was also known for rights activisim, and joined a flotilla in 2010 trying to break the Israeli blockade and take aid to the Gaza Strip.He said he wanted to create a situation where "Palestinians are not treated like second-class citizens in their own country, a sort of apartheid system. Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, best known for novels featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander, dies aged 67. "In my mind I created another mother for myself to replace the one who had left," he once said. "I mean, you could never imagine James Bond giving himself a shot of insulin, but with Wallander it seemed perfectly natural. His debut novel, The Stone-Blaster, soon followed. In Nemo Hedéns podcast, Nemo Meets A Friend, Krister Henriksson reveals that he needed therapy to help process the loss of his onscreen daughter Johanna Sällström (Linda Wallander), who committed suicide in 2007 at the age of 32.
